


Time and Again

by Codexfawkes



Series: It's A Lulu [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dubious Science, F/M, Lying Steve, Sad Steve is Sad, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:46:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9472043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Codexfawkes/pseuds/Codexfawkes
Summary: “It’s May 11, 2011. Why, does 2015 have some significance for you?” Fury asked, curiosity and suspicion in his tone. Steve stared at the man for a long moment, there was no way he was telling anyone about his Lulu.





	1. Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing. Any characters used from the Marvel universe and any quotes from anywhere are not mine. Joss is Boss.

Steve looked around Times Square; the lights, screens, and the sheer strangeness of it all overwhelming him. The fight drained out of him as the black SUV’s surrounded him. 

“At ease solider,” a deep voice rang out causing Steve to turn away from the men in tactical gear moving toward him. Steve saw a dark skinned man in all black, with an eye patch, moving toward him. Everything about this man screamed authority, he was clearly someone used to being obeyed. “Look, I’m sorry about that little show back there, but we thought it best to break it to you slowly,” the man continued calmly.

“Break what?” Steve demanded, breathing heavily in a way that he hadn’t since he’d been a short asthmatic. 

“You’ve been asleep Cap, for almost 70 years,” the man revealed, a concerned look flickering briefly across his face. Steve felt his breath catch, everything in him wanting to scream a denial, but looking around at the almost alien New York he knew this man wasn’t lying to him. “You gonna be okay,” the man asked.

“Yeah,” Steve answered, “yeah, I just…I had a date,” he finished, sadness welling up in him at the thought of Peggy. Wonderful Peggy who’d been so good to him, a friend, confidant, and was starting to be something else. And now… 

Steve followed the man who introduced himself as Nick Fury into one of the cars and was driven back to the building he’d busted out of. He was brought to a meeting room where he was introduced to an efficient looking woman named Maria Hill. Fury and Hill painstakingly explained what had happened to him, what SHIELD was, and promised to do everything they could to catch him up on almost 70 years of history. As Steve’s shock lessened an amazing thought occurred to him. Lulu, he could find her again. He could have her back.

“What’s the date again? The year, is it 2015?” Steve cut in suddenly, willing to admit he’d been in such shock at first the date hadn’t sunk in. Fury and Hill exchanged a confused look at the abrupt question. 

“It’s May 11, 2011. Why, does 2015 have some significance for you?” Fury asked, curiosity and suspicion in his tone. Steve stared at the man for a long moment, there was no way he was telling anyone about his Lulu. 

“No…I was just adding 70 to 1945,” Steve lied evenly, staring Fury directly in the eye. Fury held his gaze for a moment before accepting his statement. 

“It’s only natural to be in a bit of shock,” Hill commented, “Maybe we should let you get some rest. We can meet again tomorrow,” she offered. 

“I’ve arranged for temporary quarters here in the facility. Tomorrow Hill will help you get anything you need and we can talk about getting you an apartment. SHIELD will cover your expenses until we can get your military back pay sorted out. Should be a tidy sum, you could do anything you want,” Fury said standing. Steve nodded, not sure what to say to that. 

“I’ll show you to your room Captain,” Hill offered standing as well. Steve stood and followed her to a small bunk with a private bathroom. Looking around Steve took in the small kitchen area with a two person table, a lounge area with some kind of big screen hanging on the wall, and a large bed, night stands, and dresser. Hill told him there was basic clothing in the dresser and grooming items in the bathroom for him. She explained there was food in the fridge and did a quick rundown on how to use the modern stove. Once she’d done that he was left to his thoughts. Steve rummaged through the drawers and came up with a pad of note paper and a pen. Sitting himself down at the table he began to draw. His mother, Bucky, Peggy, Gabe, Dum Dum, Jim, Jacque, James, Howard, and finally Lulu.

“I’m gonna find you doll, I swear, no matter how long it takes I’m gonna find you,” Steve swore tears slipping down his cheeks. Finally, exhausted, Steve drug himself into a scalding hot shower and let the tears come.


	2. Working My Way Back To You

It had been two years since Steve woke up in the future, and things were okay. The first year was a nightmare he couldn’t seem to wake up from. Everyone he’d known was dead, all except Peggy, and she was in a nursing home with memory issues. As much as he ached for her, Steve just couldn’t bring himself to go visit her and see Peg as an old woman. Especially an old woman who might not know who he is.

Steve got an apartment in Brooklyn, made an after hours arrangement with a small gym that reminded him of home, and spent his days wandering the streets hoping to catch a glimpse of his Lulu. Every day that passed without finding her, Steve assured himself it was okay, that she wouldn’t know who he was for a few years yet, he could wait. Sometimes he even believed it.

The last thing he expected was for there to be an alien threat and to be part of a new team. Yet that was exactly what happened.

Still, being useful, doing something real, saving the world with the Avengers, well it was the kick in the ass Steve needed. Steve finally stopped wallowing and decided he needed to build a life worthy of sharing with his Lulu when he found her. So he used some of the money Fury had gotten the Army to pay him, bought a motorcycle, and took off to explore the country. To reconnect with the world. By the time he returned to his Brooklyn apartment six months later Steve was a much happier man, and had decided that the future was actually pretty great. He couldn’t go back, but he could still make something special of his life.

Steve decided to take Fury up on his offer to join SHIELD. He started going out on missions with Natasha and Clint, sometimes both of them, sometimes one or the other. The three of them made a surprisingly good team. Almost a year after the Battle of Manhattan, Steve was walking down the street when he heard something that made him freeze. From a car waiting at red light, the windows wide open, an all too familiar song was playing. Without thought Steve lurched over to the car and leaned down, faintly recognizing the alarm on the faces of the two young women inside. 

“Dude, what the hell?” the girl in the passenger seat exclaimed gripping her phone tight. 

“Sorry, I…I just need to know, what song is that?” Steve begged taking a step back. 

“It…it’s called Brave by Sara Bareilles,” the young woman told him haltingly. 

“Thank you…just…really, thank you,” Steve told her with tears in his eyes as he backed up onto the sidewalk. Seconds later the light changed and the car sped away, but Steve had already started sprinting back to his apartment. 

Once he was inside, Steve locked the door and started up his laptop computer. Opening the browser Steve typed in the title of the song and the artists name. Unsure how to spell Bareilles he was grateful when Google filled it in for him. The first link was a music video and Steve played the song, eyes closing as he pictured his Lulu sitting on the couch and singing this same song for him and Bucky. Steve saw that it was a new song, that it hadn’t been out long and grinned at the idea that somewhere out there his girl was listening to the same song. This was proof, she was real and she was out there, and damned if he wasn’t going to find her. Steve wasn’t letting her go without a fight.

A few months later Steve came back from a mission with Clint only to find out that there had been an incident in London, an alien attack, and that Thor was back. Over the next year things changed even more. Steve moved to D.C. after realizing he was spending more time at the newly built Triskellion than his own Brooklyn apartment, he got his own Strike Team and started seeing more of Natasha than anyone. She was a good friend, if a bit too invested in his love life. Steve wasn’t a monk, he’d gone out with that waitress Beth a few times, kissed her even, but it hadn’t gone further than that. It couldn’t, not while Steve held on to the belief that someday soon he’d find his Lulu. Not that it stopped Nat from trying, or Steve from looking at other women. 

His neighbor Kate was a good looking woman, smart, funny, kind, there was nothing to dislike there. It wasn’t that he didn’t have thoughts of asking her out, maybe having something casual if she was up for it, but Steve was still somewhat awkward with women he was attracted to. Of course besides his lost girl, there was Peggy. He’d reconnected with her, gamely taking her scolding him for putting off visiting her for so long. Some weeks when he visited her, she spent a whole afternoon perfectly fine, knew where and when she was. Other times she slipped, in the blink of an eye she’d be in the past unsure of what was happening. It broke his heart every time, but he’d never stop going. Peggy was worth it, she’d do the same for him.

Steve was okay. He had friends, and SHIELD, he didn’t even mind the Smithsonian exhibit. Even if Rumlow and Rollins gave him shit for it. He didn’t particularly like them, but they were good agents. They got the job done and followed orders, that’s all that mattered. The longer he was in D.C. though, the more he saw of SHIELD’s inner workings, the more he didn’t like it. It felt like something was off, like Fury was up to something he knew Steve wouldn’t like. If anything meeting Sam Wilson brought home how much he was starting question his place in SHIELD, if he wanted to keep being Commander Rogers. Not that he had any idea what he would do if he did leave it all behind. Maybe when he found Lulu she’d be able to help him figure it out. Then a few days after making a new friend, it all went to shit.


	3. After the Fall

Everything was a fucking mess. SHIELD was no more, Hydra was once again his enemy, and Bucky… fuck Bucky was gone. Again. After leaving the cemetery and Fury’s empty grave, Steve and Sam headed for New York. Clint and Nat had disappeared, but Stark and Banner were at the tower. Tony offered to help him look for leads to follow while Clint and Nat worked on covering their asses from the leaked information. Tony confided on the phone that he was sure they were playing sheath the arrow, Steve replied that he really didn’t want to know. Driving into New York had calming effect on Steve’s nerves. Parking the car in the underground garage, Steve let out a sigh of relief. The tower was safe, the very concept felt luxurious after the last few weeks. 

Tony met them on what he explained was the teams common floor, a huge modern space with a kitchen, full bar, lounge area, TV viewing area, pool table, and more. He took them down to the apartment he’d designed for Steve, explaining that after the Battle he’d redesigned the upper floors of the tower specifically for the Avengers. The floor below his penthouse apartment were labs for him and Banner, next the common space, under that two floors of luxury apartments for the team, a floor under that with three more apartments for guests, and below that an entire floor with gyms, a pool, locker rooms, sparring area, boxing room, even a gun range complete with a lane specifically for Barton’s bow. Steve was a bit overwhelmed by the effort Tony had made to build a place for the team, unsure how to thank the man he hadn’t even counted a friend. Though it was clear he needed to reassess that opinion. 

Steve’s apartment had every luxury a person could need, including his own art studio, and a guest bedroom for Sam. Over the next few weeks they all worked to put together a trail on Bucky that he could follow. Bruce was surprisingly helpful in this, and when Steve praised him, he off handedly explained how he’d spent two years on the run after the Hulk emerged. Eventually, after Tony built Sam a new pair of wings, Steve and Sam were ready to follow the trail. Before they could, Thor appeared and related that Fury had contacted him and let him know that Loki’s scepter had been lost, to Hydra. 

Thor was furious and had just barely refrained from killing Nick, mostly thanks to someone named Darcy. Steve sent Nat a coded message to get herself and Barton back to New York. Getting that scepter back from Hydra had to be their first priority, no matter what. In the end it was decided that Sam would go off looking for Bucky, running down leads, while the main team tried to get intel on Hydra and where they were holding the scepter. Tony offered to rebuild the Avengers under SI, even going so far as to hire Maria Hill to lead the support team they needed to build.

Clint and Nat agreed to move into the tower, Thor on the other hand refused unless he could bring Dr. Foster and her assistant Darcy Lewis. Clint had brightened at mention of the assistant, declaring her awesome and fun to be around. Tony was more than happy to add a new scientist to his R&D floors, quickly agreeing to giving Dr. Foster a job and even an apartment in the tower for her assistant. Thor returned to London with the offer and in less than two weeks returned with both women. Tony had movers to take care of their things, but insisted the whole team and Pepper meet them in the common room to welcome Thor, Dr. Foster, and Miss Lewis to the tower. 

Steve joined the others on the couches waiting for Tony to come up stairs with Thor and the ladies. They were all chatting when the elevator doors slid open and laughter poured out. They all stood and turned toward the sound watching as Tony led Thor and two women off the elevator. At first the smaller women were difficult to see behind the two men, then the group spread out more and Steve froze. Lulu, it was her, she was standing right in front of him. He watched as she laughed at something Tony had said, blood pounding in his ears as his hands curled into helpless fists to stop himself for reaching out for her. He’d found her, Lulu was right in front of him, and it was still 2014. Whatever happened to send her to him hadn’t happened yet. Darcy Lewis was his Lulu, but she didn’t know it. 

The next few hours were a blur. He was introduced to Jane and Darcy, but what he said to greet them Steve had no idea. He was conscious of the fact that he was being somewhat distant, but couldn’t seem to break out of the fog he’d landed in. What was worse he couldn’t even explain to anyone without sounding insane, and possibly changing whatever event sent her back to 1940. Eventually he was able to excuse himself to his apartment, as much as he didn’t want to leave her side. That night Steve came to the conclusion that to make sure he didn’t screw up and prevent Darcy from becoming his Lulu, he had to be polite but distant. If he got too close to her, Steve was terrified he’d ruin everything. 

It took three weeks before Steve encountered Darcy again. He wasn’t actively avoiding her, lucky for him he didn’t have to, their day to day schedules were vastly different. On that particular day Steve walked into the gym to find Darcy on a treadmill, IPod strapped to her arm with the white cords leading to her ears. Part of Steve wanted to walk right back out again, to leave her be, to save himself the pain of being near her and not being with her. Of seeing nothing but polite warmth in her eyes instead of love.

Even still, he couldn’t make himself leave. Steve walked over to one of the weight stations and started lifting, nothing strenuous, just a light workout as he surreptitiously watched her in the mirror. He was so caught up in watching her jog, that he didn’t notice Natasha entering the gym until she was standing in front of him. Steve raised an eyebrow at her when Nat smirked at him, but rather than speak Natasha winked and moved to another machine. 

Not long after, the treadmill slowed from a light jog to a walk. Minutes later Darcy was doing a few cool down stretches before heading out of the gym, waving at them with weary politeness before ducking out of the door. It only took two minutes (Steve counted) before Natasha spoke.

“You should ask her out,” Nat encouraged. 

“You should mind your own business,” Steve replied evenly. 

“Come on Steve, you need something good in your life. Darcy’s smart, looks like a pin up, we even know she’s not Hydra or going to sell a story to the press. Why not just see what happens?” Natasha asked. Steve heaved a sigh and put down the weight he’d been doing curls with.

“Look, I know you’re just trying to help but...as tempting as that is…” Steve trailed off not sure how much to tell her.

“Is this about Peggy?” Nat asked quietly. Steve huffed a bitter chuckle and shook his head. 

“Peggy and me, we never got our shot. I’ve accepted that. No, there’s someone else. Her name’s Lulu. We, we have something and because of things I’m not going to get into, we can’t be together right now. But in a little over eight months we’ll be able to be together again. So as much as I enjoy looking at Miss Lewis, I’ll wait for my Lulu, she’s worth it,” Steve explained painfully. Natasha stared at him quietly for a long moment processing his confession. 

“I take it whatever is separating you two is on her end,” Nat observed. Steve nodded not trusting himself to speak. “I’m going to need some more information on her, she needs to be vetted. I know you understand why,” Nat related. 

“Trust me, she’s not Hydra, that is something you’ll never have to worry about,” Steve assured her smirking.

“I need more than that Steve,” Nat insisted. 

“Well, that’s all you’re getting. Trust me, when you meet her it’ll all make sense. Promise,” Steve swore before getting up and leaving the gym. Natasha finished her work out and showered before returning to her apartment. Going to her computer, she started the task of hacking military databases. From everything he told her, it sound like Steve’s mystery woman was a solider deployed overseas. She knew he’d done some joint missions with the US military, and had worked with the USO, so it was more than possible he’d met his Lulu that way. Not to mention a lot of service members were stationed in the D.C. area. Now it was just a matter of finding service women whose names could be shortened to Lulu that Steve could have encountered. Natasha had no doubt she’d find the right woman eventually.

 

Two days later Steve walked into Tony’s lab only to find Darcy sitting at one of the tables typing on a laptop. She looked up at him, her smile widening when he came fully into the room. 

“Hey Cap, Tony went to get Bruce but he should be back in a few if you want to wait,” she related. 

“Thank you, I…thought you were Dr. Foster’s assistant?” Steve asked confused as to why she was working in Tony’s lab. 

“Oh I am, but Jane hit a mathematical wall in her work and is distracting herself with a little Thor time. Tony’s letting me play with Dum E’s code. He said if I could get him to make a smoothie without forgetting to put the top on the blender he’d build me my own little bot,” Darcy enthused grinning. 

“That’s something you know how to do? Write code?” Steve questioned impressed and more than a little proud of her. 

“Well, I’m not Tony but yeah. My Bachelors is in Computer Science, it’s just my Masters that’s in Political Science,” Darcy explained with a shrug. Before Steve could reply the doors opened and Tony came in with Bruce following behind. 

“Steve, what brings you to my humble home away from home?” Tony enthused. Steve watched enviously as Bruce crossed to Darcy’s side and leaned over the screen, the two talking quietly about whatever she’d done.

“You asked me to come by to talk suit designs,” Steve reminded him, pulling his eyes away from Darcy. 

“Right, yeah come this way mon Capitan, I’ve got a few designs in the works,” Tony said leading him over to the other side of the lab where he couldn’t see Darcy anymore. By the time Tony had gone over all the options and they’d agreed on a design to try, Darcy and Bruce had gone.

 

The next few weeks were spent putting together a logistics team, creating and testing new equipment, and even purchasing a quinjet.  Steve didn’t run into Darcy again until a rainy August afternoon. He’d gone up to common area to get a book he’d left there and found Darcy curled up in a chair looking out over the city. As he moved closer, hoping to grab his book and go, Darcy looked up and smiled at him. 

“Hi,” she greeted softly.

“Miss Lewis,” Steve greeted stiffly as he grabbed his book. 

“You can call me Darcy,” she invited, her soft smile widening. 

“That’s quite alright Miss Lewis,” Steve forced himself to answer, distancing himself from her out of self-preservation. He internally flinched at the hurt that flashed across her face before she nodded and turned back to the window. Steve cursed himself even as he quickly fled the room.

 

After that things were different when he encountered Darcy. She was always polite, kind even, but her smiles no longer held a welcoming warmth when she looked at him. No, instead Steve inspired confused sadness in those blue eyes and he hated himself for it. He was forced to call upon every ounce of self-control that he had to prevent himself from sweeping her into his arms and begging forgiveness. Steve was hard pressed not to blurt out the entire story every time he was near her, so he took to avoiding not just Darcy but Jane, and even any mention of their work together. Especially when he saw the adorable little bot trailing after Darcy like a puppy, signaling that she had in fact won her bet with Tony. All he wanted to do was to hug her and tell her how amazing she was to him, but he couldn’t, and it was killing him. In all his determination to find Lulu, he never once realized how awful it would be to find her too soon. He was in a new kind of hell, and he was stuck there alone.


	4. Here We Go Again

Over the next several months Steve took any excuse to go out into the field and away from the tower. Everyone noticed that he avoided Darcy, but no one except Natasha had any clue why. Well, he figured that Clint knew the story he’d given Nat, that’s just how they were. Tony still insisted Nat and Clint were a couple, but Steve didn’t get that vibe from them. No, they reminded him of the relationship between himself and Bucky. If Bucky was his brother in all but blood, Clint was definitely the same for Natasha. It was nice to see actually, that bone deep bond, the same Sam had with his lost friend Riley, and Tony had with Rhodey and Bruce. Jane was indeed every bit the sister he’d always believed her to be to his Lulu, but that relationship just made him sad. Sad because he couldn’t tell Jane how Darcy had remembered her even when her own name was gone. Though it was interesting to realize that the large blonde man Darcy had dreamt of, or would dream of (it hurt his head sometimes to think about it) was actually Thor.

Steve spent Christmas and New Years in D.C. with Sam and his family. Mrs. Wilson (oh none of that now, I’m Darlene or Mama, Mrs. Wilson is for strangers), his sister Sarah with her husband and son, and Sam’s brother Gideon as well as his wife and son all welcomed Steve with open arms. The two kids Jody (Sarah’s boy) and Jim (Gideon’s) were thrilled to have Captain America spend Christmas with them and kept asking if their Uncle was an Avenger now. 

Steve didn’t really have an answer for that. Sam wasn’t officially a member of the team but was doing the work of an Avenger, so he really should be one. Rhodey had been helpful too, and he knew that Tony wanted to offer the man a spot with the rest of them. Once the holidays were over Steve vowed to hold a team meeting and bring up officially making War Machine and Falcon Avengers. He did however make the kids year by taking them sledding and letting them sit on his shield with him as they flew down the hill. They were lucky to have just enough snow to do it. 

As the calendar year turned to 2015, Steve felt a looming excitement come over him. It wouldn’t be long now before whatever happened to send Darcy back to 1940 and him, would take place. Then, when she came back, Darcy would know him again. Hopefully she would understand why he had to keep his distance all this time. By the end of February, Steve returned to the tower with the intention of not leaving again until he had his Lulu back. Natasha had not forgotten what he’d told her (not that he’d expected her to) and as time got closer to the eight month deadline he’d given her, she became increasingly persistent in trying to get details out of him. 

At the beginning of March, Jane announced that they were ready to try a small scale test on the wormhole device she’d created. She believed she could successfully transport a living being from one borough to another. Steve felt a bolt of excitement shoot through him, this was it, this was what he was waiting for. Tony agreed to find a property to purchase as a test destination and less than a week later reported back that he’d procured a vacant lot in Brooklyn. Finally it was March twelfth, and Steve insisted on being on hand for the experiment. He justified it as being ready in case the wormhole connected with someplace dangerous, but really it was because he had to make sure it went the way it was supposed to. 

He’d wanted to be in the lab, but in the end was voted down as everyone decided Thor would stay in the tower. Erik Selvig had been flown in from London at Jane’s insistence, though Thor had quietly explained that Erik’s presence was more because he was Jane’s mentor and de-facto father since her own passed away, than because he was needed for the science. 

Steve, Tony, and Bruce drove out to the lot in Brooklyn, a place Steve recognized as being where the alley Bucky found Lulu used to be, and had to fight back a happy smile. Tony set up the receiving pad where the guinea pig was supposed to appear. A pad Steve knew damn well would remain empty. Though he did wonder if a guinea pig with a 21st century tracker had ended up in that alley, completely overlooked by the humans who’d been there too. Comms  in their ears, they all got ready for the test to begin. At first everything was calm, then there was shouting, the buzz of electricity and finally Jane’s voice yelling 

“Darcy!”


	5. The Search for Darcy

Returning to the tower was like walking into chaos. Jane was practically hysterical, Erik was frantically typing on one of the computers and shouting out numbers to Jane, who was scribbling furiously on one of the white boards she favored. Natasha explained that the machine had either overheated or had a power surge and that Darcy had disappeared in a huge flash of light. Steve had to force himself not to grin, to keep his expression concerned and serious. Clint reported that Thor had gone to Asgard to get the help of someone named Heimdall who Thor was sure could locate Darcy anywhere in the universe. Somehow Steve didn’t think his technique included seeing 70 years into the past. 

Thor didn’t return until the next day, and by that point none of the science staff had slept. They were all determined to rebuild the machine (Tony and Bruce) and calculate where it had sent Darcy (Jane and Erik). When Thor arrived Steve, Clint, and Nat all met him in Jane’s lab. 

“Well, where is she?” Jane demanded worriedly. 

“I am afraid wherever she is, Darcy is beyond Heimdall’s sight,” Thor told her gently. Jane burst into tears, throwing herself into Thor’s arms declaring that she’d killed her best friend. 

“Jane, you can’t know that, she could be perfectly fine,” Erik soothed rubbing her back consolingly even while forcing back tears.

“If she were anywhere in the universe Heimdall would be able to see her!” Jane wailed brokenhearted. 

“We should watch the footage of the accident again, maybe there’s something we missed,” Bruce offered softly. 

“I…I can’t watch that again,” Jane refused before rushing out of the room, Thor quickly following after her. Steve frowned, guilt flaring through him for letting Jane suffer. Bruce queued up the footage, playing it for the first time while Steve was in the room. This was his moment, now he could spin the story he’d come up with. The one that would give Jane the information she needed to bring Lulu back to him. To all of them. 

As the footage played and the same circle of light burst into being that he remember from Lulu leaving him, Steve shoved forward, getting close to the screen. 

“Uh, Cap?” Tony asked confused.

“I’ve seen this before,” Steve reported looking at Tony with a frown. 

“Seen what before?” Bruce wanted to know.

“This circle of light, in fact I’ve seen it exactly twice, precisely ten minutes apart,” Steve reported.

“What, when?” Erik demanded eagerly. 

“In my living room, in 1940,” Steve told them. This was met by five sets of eyes boring into him. 

“Annnd, you didn’t think to mention this before?” Tony drawled in disbelief. 

“This is the first time I’ve watched the footage. I didn’t know what the wormhole looked like, it’s not like I understand the science,” Steve pointed out. 

“I think we need to call Jane and Thor back here and you need to tell us everything you know,” Bruce said seriously. It only took a few minutes for Thor and a hopeful Jane to come back to the lab. Bruce quickly explained to Jane what Steve said and they all turned their attention to him.

“Back in the summer of 1940, there was one rainy Saturday in August, in the middle of the month. Bucky and I were in the living room, we had the radio on and all of a sudden there was this…light. This little ball of white light that just, appeared, in the middle of the room. We didn’t know what was happening, just sat there stunned staring at it as it got bigger and started rippling with all sorts of different colors. Then out of nowhere this woman falls out of it onto the floor and poof, the light is gone. She was a panting mess, and by the time we got her calm enough to speak she couldn’t tell us anything. Said she had no idea what her name was, where she came from, or what the light was. Ten minutes later the light appeared again and the only thing we could think of was to send her back through it.” Steve explained with a shrug. 

“And, you think this mystery woman was Darcy?” Natasha asked. 

“It makes sense, it was the same light,” Steve replied.

“So why didn’t you say something when you first saw Darcy? We could have avoided this whole thing?!” Jane yelled at him.

“I didn’t know it was her. My memory before the serum wasn’t that great, and it was over a year later when I was chosen for Project Rebirth. Since then my memory is eidetic, but by the time I received the serum the features and details of the woman had faded. It could have been any curvy brunette,” Steve explained. 

“But you’re certain that the wormhole on the screen is the same as the one you saw that day?” Jane pressed. 

“A woman’s features can blur, especially when there are lots of other women around you with the same body type on a daily basis. But a ball of light that turns into a portal popping up in your living room, that’s the kind of thing that sticks out in your memory,” Steve pointed out dryly. 

“Fair point,” Tony stated, “so how come you never mentioned anything like this before? Especially now that we’ve seen things like aliens and portals since you got defrosted?” Tony asked. 

“Look, I’ve read and watched enough science fiction to know that messing around with stuff like this is a recipe for disaster. What if I told you guys something and you tried to figure out what happened back then and you somehow changed the past? One of the main reasons I believed that Dr. Erskine and Howard could do what they claimed they could without killing me was because I’d already seen the impossible. That vortex made me understand that there was so much more truth in science fiction than anyone in my time realized. Except maybe Dr. Erskine and his team. The last thing I’d ever want to do is screw up the series of events that made me, me,” Steve insisted frustratedly. 

Silence fell over the lab as even Jane ran out of things to complain about concerning his silence. Steve grimaced, realizing that once Darcy was back Jane especially was going to be furious he lied. Or at the very least didn’t tell them everything.

“If Darcy is truly in the past, then that means your initial calculations were off by a considerable margin,” Erik pointed out gently. 

“It also means that the power surge was just enough to send her back there. If Steve can give us a precise location, date, and approximate time, we’d have everything we need to dial in the calculations and recreate the wormhole. We can get Darcy back,” Bruce added reassuringly.

Jane perked up at this and turned to face Steve with a new determination.

“Jarvis, bring up a calendar for August 1940,” Jane ordered. Jarvis obeyed without comment and a blue holographic calendar appeared before them. “You’re sure it was a Saturday?” Jane questioned.

“Yes, neither of us were working that day and we didn’t go to church that morning. Saturday is the only day it could have been,” Steve affirmed. 

“And it was the middle of the month?” Jane wanted to know. 

“Yeah, we’d already paid our rent which happened on the first, and we had a couple weeks to pay it again. The middle of the month was when we had the most money and the night before we’d gone out to a jazz club. That means it had to be the middle of the month,” Steve explained. 

“Okay, so that leaves August 17th. What time of day was it?” Jane continued. 

“Late morning, I remember I’d done laundry and the wet sheets were hanging inside because it was raining but we hadn’t had lunch yet,” Steve related. 

“Okay good, now, what was your street address and which apartment was yours? If we can find old plans of the building we can pinpoint exactly what location to enter into the computer,” Jane let him know. Steve gave her the address of the old apartment building on Water St in the Vinegar Hill area of Brooklyn Heights, it was only a few blocks from the vacant lot that had back in 1940 been an alley and a pharmacy. Once he’d given them all the information he could to make the new calculations, Steve left the lab so team science could get to work.

Over the next week everyone but Steve worried about Darcy, though he gave a credible impersonation of concern. Finally the machine was complete, all the calculations had been triple checked and they were ready to get his girl back.


	6. Back to the Future

This time the entire team plus Erik were in the lab as Jane fired up the wormhole device. A medical team was on standby in case Darcy was somehow harmed during her journey. Watching the scene from the other end of the vortex was a bit surreal to Steve, he was having a hard time keeping his excitement to see her again in check. Last thing he needed was to screw things up moments before they brought her home. Finally, finally Jane turned on the machine. Just like the first time Steve watched as the little ball of light appeared hovering over the transport pad. In his mind’s eye he could see what was happening decades in the past as that same light appeared in a dingy Brooklyn apartment and changed his future forever. The vortex began to ripple, threaded through with rainbow light, growing in size until it was large enough to allow a person to step through. Steve couldn’t help but hold his breath as Erik shouted out a fluctuation in the wormhole, and then, out tumbled Darcy. 

As soon as she was clear, Bruce powered down the machine and Jane rushed to her side. Steve forced himself to remain in place while Jane steadied his girl, who was shakily pushing herself to her knees. 

“Darcy, oh god, I’m so sorry, are you okay?” Jane babbled in relief. Darcy didn’t respond. Her entire body was visibly trembling as her eyes slid shut. Steve was holding onto his control by the skin of his teeth. He wanted so much to run to her, to scoop Darcy into his arms and never let her go. “Darcy, Darce are you okay?” Jane asked again. They all watched in concern as Darcy kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut and shook her head. “Darcy, can you hear me?” Jane questioned anxiously. When she still didn’t respond Steve couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Lulu?” he called out over everyone, hope coloring his voice. Steve was so focused on Darcy he didn’t notice Natasha and Clint freeze, their eyes narrowing in suspicion.  Everyone else was staring at Steve in confusion, but he only had eyes for Darcy. She froze, her eyes opening and her head slowly raising to look up at him.

“Steve?” she breathed uncertainly as she peered into his eyes. The whole room stilled as Darcy slowly stood and walked toward Steve, completely ignoring Jane who was still kneeling on the floor. She stopped two feet in front of him with a wondering look on her face. Steve was afraid to move, breath, or even blink for fear that she’d disappear on him again. He hated the look of confusion and uncertainty on her face as she reached toward him, only to stop inches from his body. Steve tentatively took her hand in his and pressed it to his chest over his heart. 

“It’s me, it’s me,” he assured her soothingly.

“You’re huge,” Darcy breathed in dazed amazement. A bark of laughter burst out of his chest as grateful tears began to flow down his face. With a choked sob of her own, Darcy threw herself into Steve’s arms. He caught her to him, lifting her up, his arms wrapped tightly around her as their lips found each other. The only reason they were afforded that kiss and an all too brief moment after it, was due to the shock of the others. It didn’t take long before answers were being demanded and a great deal of anger was directed at Steve. But to him, none of it mattered. Darcy, his Lulu, was back in his arms and nothing could ever make him regret a single second of what had happened to both of them.

  

The morning after her return, Steve left Darcy curled up asleep in her bed so he could grab a quick shower and change of clothes at his place, with every intention of returning to make breakfast before Lulu woke up. The best laid plans however didn’t have to contend with a pissed off Natasha Romanov. Steve opened the door to his apartment to find Nat sitting on his couch as regal as any monarch ever could.

“So, let me get this straight,” she began as Steve closed the door behind himself. “You couldn’t ask Darcy out on a date because you were waiting to be reunited with your Lulu, but Lulu is Darcy. However Darcy didn’t know she was Lulu and you lied to me because, why?” Nat demanded with a dangerous tilt of her head. 

“Because telling anyone, getting close to Darcy, making one wrong move could have changed **_everything_**. Darcy had to go back in time, she also had to come home. I had no choice but to be very careful about what I revealed and when,” Steve explained wearily. 

“You could have trusted me, I wouldn’t have done anything to alter what happened,” Nat defended.

“All due respect Nat, I don’t know that. The simple act of telling you could have changed something, anything. That’s not a risk I was willing to take,” Steve defended dropping into a chair. Natasha stared at him for a long few minutes before she spoke again. 

“There was a man, when I was in the Red Room. His name was Yasha. I loved him. That I **_could_** love him at a time when I believed love was nothing but a fairy tale, is a miracle. They found out, like we knew they would, shot him in the head and forced me to dig, then fill in his grave myself. If I thought for one second that keeping that story to myself would mean that he was brought back to me, even death itself couldn’t pry it from my lips. You are a lucky man Steve, you got your Lulu back, don’t waste it,” Nat ordered before rising to her feet. Steve kept his silence as she walked out the door, only then did he push himself to his feet and head for his shower.

 

Nat walked into her apartment and dropped onto the couch next to Clint, removing her comms and tossing it onto the table next to his. 

“You realize he’s going to be pissed when he finds out Barnes is your Yasha,” Clint pointed out with a chuckle.

“And when he is, I’m going to remind him of the conversation we just had and the wealth of lies he told to get his Lulu back,” Natasha smirked.

“It’s also a nice bit of payback for all the hours you spent trying to figure out who his mystery woman was,” Clint grinned. 

“Damn right,” Nat grinned back fist bumping him.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally I intended for this to be longer and include BUcky's return, but decided that needed to be it's own story. Hopefully no one is too disappointed that this one is significantly shorter than the original.


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